New vehicle testing in UK
Posted: Wed May 30, 2018 11:19 am
What a fiasco these new MOT rules are turning out to be which came into force this May. Yesterday I took mine for its test, actually a month early as I wanted to get it done before planning my caravan trips out so legally it is not due for another month. I have a diesel 4x4 SUV mainly for two reasons, one was that the government encouraged us all to buy diesels as it was cleaner than petrol engines and two they are better for towing. The new MOT has several categories that range from serious to advisory (faults that need attention) a serious fault will result in an immediate fail and in law your car is then illegal to drive from the point it fails. There used to be an amount of time to get any defect fixed and then you would re-test the vehicle and therefore many people like myself would have it tested early so as to show up any defects prior to the real test expiry date and you could get them fixed.
The other thing was the emissions test, each vehicle has an allowable emission and it will fail if it exceeds the figure on the manufacturers plate, that figure has been halved for any vehicle manufactured after 2014 from 1.5m to 0.7m. which is a big reduction. We also have all the advisories that have to be listed on the MOT certificate and should indicate a potential future problem such as wear and tare.
So how did I go on? Well it passed the test with no problems and my emission level was zero, but I had several ‘advisories’ which come under the category of “monitor and repair if necessary”. This immediately got my attention as they were as follows: “both front tyres cracking on tread” What! They are like new and have at least 20,000 miles left on them. “Oh its nothing to worry about, just ignore that, it’s just that now we have to put every little thing we find on the report” “but it says cracks on tyre tread” I replied and that must mean I need to change those tyres? The reply was don’t do anything your tyres are fine.
Next still under the above monitor and repair if necessary category was:
‘Under trays fitted’ & ‘Plastic sill covers fitted’
“But I have not added anything to the vehicle” I spluttered.
“Oh don’t worry” was the reply, “it just refers to the tray on the underside of the engine and the trim on the door sills” “but they are part of the car and put on during manufacture” “yes I know but we have to note it down on the test as we cannot see the underside of the engine or the sills to inspect them” The mind boggles!!!!! so every year I will get those things added to my MOT report as though I have some ongoing problem that I am not getting fixed, utter stupidity.
Then came the crunch, you have two broken coil springs, one front and one at the rear, so even though you still have one months validity left, that makes for an instant fail under the new regulations and you could be prosecuted for driving it home even though they could have been broken for months. This does beg the question of the state of our roads with all the pot-holes and lack of maintenance plus those bloody ubiquitous speed bumps when a vehicle built to be used off road can have two broken coil springs during one year of light usage, I know several garages that tell me their main work nowadays is replacing broken coil springs. To be honest I cannot even see the difference looking at the vehicle neither does it drive any differently, so it is something you would not have been aware of until it was tested and in reality the springs probably just have cracks in them. I have no problem with this and OK I will have to keep it off the road until Friday when they will replace them and no doubt stick me with a large bill, but this instant fail and new stringent MOT test will start to cost some people a lot of money with some running into thousands of pound on some older vehicles.
End of rant!
The other thing was the emissions test, each vehicle has an allowable emission and it will fail if it exceeds the figure on the manufacturers plate, that figure has been halved for any vehicle manufactured after 2014 from 1.5m to 0.7m. which is a big reduction. We also have all the advisories that have to be listed on the MOT certificate and should indicate a potential future problem such as wear and tare.
So how did I go on? Well it passed the test with no problems and my emission level was zero, but I had several ‘advisories’ which come under the category of “monitor and repair if necessary”. This immediately got my attention as they were as follows: “both front tyres cracking on tread” What! They are like new and have at least 20,000 miles left on them. “Oh its nothing to worry about, just ignore that, it’s just that now we have to put every little thing we find on the report” “but it says cracks on tyre tread” I replied and that must mean I need to change those tyres? The reply was don’t do anything your tyres are fine.
Next still under the above monitor and repair if necessary category was:
‘Under trays fitted’ & ‘Plastic sill covers fitted’
“But I have not added anything to the vehicle” I spluttered.
“Oh don’t worry” was the reply, “it just refers to the tray on the underside of the engine and the trim on the door sills” “but they are part of the car and put on during manufacture” “yes I know but we have to note it down on the test as we cannot see the underside of the engine or the sills to inspect them” The mind boggles!!!!! so every year I will get those things added to my MOT report as though I have some ongoing problem that I am not getting fixed, utter stupidity.
Then came the crunch, you have two broken coil springs, one front and one at the rear, so even though you still have one months validity left, that makes for an instant fail under the new regulations and you could be prosecuted for driving it home even though they could have been broken for months. This does beg the question of the state of our roads with all the pot-holes and lack of maintenance plus those bloody ubiquitous speed bumps when a vehicle built to be used off road can have two broken coil springs during one year of light usage, I know several garages that tell me their main work nowadays is replacing broken coil springs. To be honest I cannot even see the difference looking at the vehicle neither does it drive any differently, so it is something you would not have been aware of until it was tested and in reality the springs probably just have cracks in them. I have no problem with this and OK I will have to keep it off the road until Friday when they will replace them and no doubt stick me with a large bill, but this instant fail and new stringent MOT test will start to cost some people a lot of money with some running into thousands of pound on some older vehicles.
End of rant!
